Civilian internee

A civilian internee is a civilian detained by a party to a war for security reasons. Internees are usually forced to reside in internment camps, often pejoratively called concentration camps and similar to prisoner of war camps or civilian prisons. Historical examples include Japanese American internment and internment of German Americans in the United States during World War II. Japan interned 130,000 Dutch, British, and American civilians in Asia during World War II.

From December 1941 to April 1942 in World War II, Japan conquered much of Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. In doing so, Japan acquired colonies of the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and the United States. Tens of thousands of non-combatant civilians of countries at war with Japan resided in those territories. Japan interned most of the civilians in makeshift camps located throughout the region and in China and Japan. Many of the civilians were interned for more than three years from early 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

In general, civilian internees of the Japanese were treated less harshly than were prisoners of war (POWs). Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs administered the internee camps while the Ministry of War administered the POW camps. The Japanese left the internal administration of the camps mostly in internee hands, providing only small amounts of food, fuel, and other necessities to the internees. As the fortunes of war turned against Japan, conditions for internees worsened and by the end of the war starvation threatened in many camps. The self-rule, self-sufficiency, and cooperation of the internees permitted the Japanese to control internee camps with a minimum of resources and personnel, amounting at times to only 17 administrators and 8 guards at Santo Tomas for more than 3,000 internees.

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